Chugiri...

A New Bullet In

2009-12-03T22:27:00.005+05:30

Right, one month since the last post. Ya ya, I'm not exactly prolific in my writing, nor am I a teenage version of Chetan Bhagat, but I do like to imitate his witty, sarcastic, I-give-a-fuck tone.( and fail miserably, but what the heck.)

Okay, in the 40-odd days since October 21, I have:
1)Read three new novels, -When I should've been studying .

2)Watched 2 films.

3)Fallen ill twice, and so blown my A in Applied Math. Missed a class test that had 7.5% weightage because of very high fever.

4)Flunked miserably in a drawing test. 10% marks :P

5)Topped a physics quiz, and a chem quiz. (only silver lining in the academic scene)

6) Nearly gotten run over by a speeding local train.

7)Had an altercation with this gent on the local train, with a lot of Bollywood -style glaring.

8)Got my mother to open a farcebook account, so she stops using mine for locating her long- lost school friends.

Seriously, I didn't want to be like this psychopath with this scary profile pic (and even more abhorrent profile) who stalks 40-something US-based housewives.

9)Scraped 65% in drawing test II -Relief! Now I have a fair chance of passing this troublesome course and bidding good bye to orthographic projections and sticking prisms into cones. Haan, GPA ki waat lag jayegi, even though I should get decent grades in the other subjects.

10)Almost got beaten up by an angry mob for jumping the queue for a BEST bus.

I'm not the villain! I mean, I am but atleast appreciate the circumstances which led me to commit the crime!
People don't understand the travails of an 18-year-old stu-"dying" guy who's already late for his Physics viva, which is to be held at the office of his physics lecturer 2 hours away, and has a full bladder to boot.
Anyway, I reached my college only to find that my exam was scheduled at 6 in the evening, four hours later, making all my urgency useless. Including curbing my primal instincts and not urinating in my underwear.
I thought I did decently in the exam, though. The lecturer, who by the way has this razor- sharp memory, seemed satisfied.

11)Discussed Resonance Theory with my physics lecturer, yes, the same person. According to him, Resonance structures represent real quantum mechanical states. I disagreed, and we spent about twenty minutes arguing.
Yes you got me there, I am showing off. Oh, the things one has to say to seem intelligent!

12) Came very close to being caught by Mr.Geeky Bespectacled Finance Guy for checking out his attractive female colleague ( or hot girlfriend?) while returning home in the local train one evening. I saved myself by pretending to send an SMS on my phone just as he turned to look at me. And they were.... ahem....discussing something on the lines of forming a welfare organization for the Tamil community in Mumbai.
' Some romantic conversation, eh?

The next time I logged into farcebook, I joined this group called "Pretending to text in awkward situations". Really, it's as if these social networking sites have a community for every uncomfortable moment in the lives of emotionally dysfunctional "dumbing" teenagers.

13) Again failed to finally toilet-train our cocker spaniel pup. The living- room floor outside my room has now become his personal toilet.

14)Finally, few minutes ago I violated a sacrosanct pact by shamelessly lifting the copyrighted, trademarked, words of a good friend, let's call him Mr. Future Petroleum Engineer.

See those smart-ass lines in the About Me section? They're not mine. They're his, invented by him.
I sincerely hope the prospect of earning 20 lakh bucks per annum after graduation mollifies him enough to forgive me ;).

15) Wasted the last hours of Day 1 of my endsem prepatory leave writing this useless post.

Shubhratri.

Random Pics

2009-10-21T00:42:00.014+05:30

View from our home terrace.

Very considerate message. Commendable effort to make people more environment conscious.

Outside the Guru Nanak garden, Nerul.

Giant modak. One of these mammoths means enough prasad for atleast 25 people :P

Ganesh Chaturthi.

The view from my home during the monsoon

This turned out to be a bit hazy. Again, the limitations of a cellphone camera.

This is a picture of our cocker spaniel, taken two days after he was brought home.

After his pose, he gets down to business.. Attacking the laptop bag I'd carelessly left lying on the floor...., Nibbling my finger... And, pulling things off the bed.

This was also taken from our moving car. I somehow couldn't resist capturing this empty stretch of road. It so closely resembles the sketches of the metaphorical lonely roads. This,by the way, is the Mumbai-Pune National Highway. The image isn't too high-res because I've used my cellphone camera. I'd taken this picture during the monsoon. Got a good vantage point from the front seat of our (moving) car. Came out pretty decently given I've used my cellphone.

IIT or death?

2009-10-11T02:15:00.003+05:30

India is a land of insane competitiveness. Whether it is the animal -like jostling to get into our trains, or cutting the serpentine queues at our ration-shops(and more recently, at malls and multiplexes.). Be it the snarling traffic jams caused by our cars trying to edge each other out of our roads, or the scramble of people to check out the new shopping complex in town. It's truly the"Survival of the Fittest." Possibly no other place in the world illustrates Darwin's theory better.

(I'm not fully aware of what it postulates, so please excuse me :-P.)

One would think it's only natural. With 1 billion people crammed into a chunk of land barely the size of Texas, such things are inevitable, aren't they? Well I guess so.

One example where only the fittest survive are "Entrance Exams". I think they're unique to India, and they come in different varieties. Want to join the Army? Appear for the NDA. Want to enter the "hallowed" IITs? Qualify in IIT-JEE. Want to become a civil servant? Take and clear this maddeningly tough UPSC exam . Want to enter the IIMs? "Bell" the ''CAT''. Annoying abbreviations, aren't they?

(Ya, Indians love abbreviating things. It produces an amazing effect ;) For the unitiated, IIT JEE-Indian Institute of Technology- Joint Entrance Examination; NDA- National Defence Academy;UPSC-Union Public Services Commission; IIM-Indian Institute of Management and CAT-Common Admission Test)

Probably the most intensely competitive is the Railways SCRA( Special Class Railway Apprentice), in which nearly 100,000 candidates compete for a measly 10-40 vacancies every year.

The logic is simple, people say. We have limited resources, so the most effective way to use them is to create as much competition for them as possible.This way, only the very best can get access to them.

But what about the others?

The title of the post is the username of a user of a popular IIT JEE discussion forum I used to frequent when I was in school. He wants to be amongst the top 100 ranks in IITJEE or else.....

Kill himself.

Faak.

This is a 17-year-0ld.

So who's to blame?

Another Noob in Vishwavidyalaya

2009-10-10T14:33:00.013+05:30

It had been two months since Noobad joined Vishwavidyalaya. Vishwavidyalaya is very renowned, and is one of the best of its kind in the world. Like all old Indian institutes, the Vishwavidyalaya campus is quaint and picturesque. Some of its buildings are examples of very fine architecture. Vishwavidyalaya is said to have a tradition of excellence, and a sizeable number of its alumni are immensely successful. Noobad's father's boss, who's one of the richest men in the world , studied at Vishwavidyalaya. Noobad found it hard to imagine his father's suave boss as a scrawny 18-year-old like himself, lugging his bag everyday for another hectic day in Vishwavidyalaya's ancient kakshas and prayogshalas. Noobad had always found it hard to imagine adults in their adolescent avatars.

Noobad's first two months at Vishwavidyalaya were rather dull. He left home at seven in the morning, sat through four hours of pravachans, then after an hour's break, slaved away with his fellow noobs in the prayogshalas. Twice a week the noobs had Aabhiyantik Chitrakala, which Noobad hated. He was and is very bad at it, though he's made some improvement. All in all, Noobad was a bit disappointed.

He had joined Vishwavidyalaya since it was purported to be a cutting-edge center of excellence in its field, and he was a student of what was supposed to be one of the best courses of its kind in the world. He expected to learn new, interesting stuff everyday but the noobs at Vishwavidyalaya learnt only old highschool subjects like Rasayanshastra, Ganit and Bhautikshastra. "This is just like highschool", Noobad thought.

He was starting to feel disillusioned when an ex-noob (who had studied in Noobad's middle-school) told him that he was suffering from the "rebel noob syndrome", and socially challenged noobs like Noobad were more prone to it, since their whole life revolved around mundane stuff like academics. He suggested that Noobad take more interest and also said it was a passing phase. "Things will be a lot lot better when you become an eswhy" , he said.

Noobad found his immediate ex-noobs, the eswhys, a very strange species. Some of them were very friendly and helpful, others downright mean and insulting. But all in all, Noobad enjoyed the first formal interaction of the noobs and eswhys, in which he was made to sing a Bollywood number, (and also other things I'd rather not mention here, lest Noobad finds out and kills me.)
He was now friends with quite a few eswhys, who were ever ready to provide any kind of assistance.

Two months into the first semester, the eswhys painstakingly organized a brilliant "Noob-Event", in which noobs could showcase their literary, artistic and sports skills. But Noobad isn't your normal noob. He is clearly a "Bad Noob" as his name suggests.

To know what is it that makes Noobad a bad noob,(or is it Noobad?) and to hear most about this abnormal noob's "escapades" in Vishwavidyalaya, wait for the next time I feel like writing.

If you want, that is.

What's Your Rashee?

2009-10-10T10:55:00.004+05:30

Watched the movie last night. Universally panned . But I didn't understand what the fuss was all about. It wasn't such a bad watch.

Sure, it's long and inane at times. And the storyline is a bit too far-fetched, but some moments were excellent and Priyanka Chopra has acted pretty well.

The Sagittarian lady who tries to seduce the male lead was hilarious! It's one of the best pieces of acting I've seen in recent times. The portrayal of the control-freak Libran was cool too.

Hurrman Baweja as acted nicely. However, he doesn't have much of a role, to be honest. His American accent is evidently put-on. It wasn't needed. Dilip Joshi was wasted in his bumbling elder-brother role. Darshan Jariwala was pretty good in his marriage-bureauwallah character.

All in all, the movie was a decent effort .Far fetched, and (very) boring at times. But anyday better than cheesy trash like "Dil Bole Hadippa" . Good acting performances overall, especially Priyanka Chopra.

I know people are going to laugh at me, but what the hell. If the movie is that stupid, what of slapstick tripe like Golmaal, cheesy,romantic movies like DDLJ and inane action flicks like Dhoom 2 the same audiences and critics devour with open mouths?

Akshayn History #12

2009-10-09T12:11:00.013+05:30

I found an old notebook of mine while we were cleaning the house the other day. In it were a few (mostly incomplete) stories I'd written when I was 10. This is one of them. I am copying the story verbatim, retaining all spelling/grammatical errors.

The Case of the Jawahar Dairy Explosion

March 18, 2050 : In the Jawahar Taluka of the Thane district in Maharashtra, An explosion took place in a dairy near the Taluka HQ. Over three thousand people were injured and 5 killed. Property worth Rs. five crore was destroyed. Family members of the victims criticized the government of Maharashtra for the unfortunate Incident. The chief minister Monish Sharma was under tremendous pressure. To remove the high pressure off his government, He cast his burden on the central govt. . The centre made required arrangements for Mr. Sharma's arrival in New Delhi.

Mr. Sharma arrived and asked the Prime minister if he could hold talks on the topic. The PM agreed and talks Commenced right from the next day. These series of talks continued for the next three days. In the end, it was decied that the CAJ (The code word for The Jawahar dairy Explosion) file will be opened after a gap of 2 years. And it will be investigated by the CBI.

So after a gap of 2 years, the CAJ file was opened and a Top CBI official Nirupa Shallom was the head of the Investigation team.

They had a computer that could tell a person's whereabouts of the photograph of the particular person was inserted. It could even find the witnesses of the tragic incidents if a Xerox copy of the file of the incident was inserted, Unfortunately, the CAJ file was not inserted. And the other thing was that it could only get inserted on the same day of the tragedy. So, the CBI held meeting and Ms.Shallom appointed Keith Shirov,Deepak Das and Madhusudhan Singh as the head of the witness search.

Ms. Shallom ordered Sudhakar Bhonsle, her assistant "go to the Scene of the crime and collect all the Bomb particles you find. Make a report and send it afterwards."

Meanwhile the trio started their hunt from Mumbai. They printed adds in newspapers and found three witnesses. They were Arif Khan, Raziya Bano and Ajay Rao. Keith asked them first, "Are you real witnesses?", he asked.
"yes", they all said in an unison.

One by one each one was asked by the trio and each had the same answer.

Meanwhile Sudhakar discovered the particles of the bomb and a cigarette butt.

Sudhakar asked Dr. Lalit, " Do you think this was used to light the bomb which exploded at the entrance?, he asked him showing a lighted matchstick he picked up from the ground.

Lalit took over the task and returned with Sudhakar and the clues to the HQ.

The witness hunters also returned with photographs of the witnesses.

Ms. Shallom took the bomb parts which Lalit had examined and found out that it was the biggest clue.

It was later found out that the bomb was illegally manufactured in Khartoum, Sudan and supplied to the culprits of Jawahar. Then suddenly Ms. Shallom went inside her room and locked the door. A few hours later, a gunshot was heard from her room. Sudhakar and Dr. Lalit entered the room afrter breaking open the door. and found her body lying a pool of blood.
A CBI officer later confirmed that it was a Suicide case.

There is nothing written beyond this point, which means either I'd lost interest in writing, or I'd run out of ideas. (You've probably realized that this pseudo-thriller, pseudo-James Bond, pseudo-Detective story isn't a "story" but a collection of random incidents the <<<<< 1.3kg slob in my head had cooked up, and my hilarious attempts to connect them.)
For the unenlightened.
1)Jawhar Taluka, Dist. Thane, Maharashtra, India.
2)CBI

Now this post prompted one of those arguments with myself:

Me:
Now if I find the story so silly, ridiculous and downright unbelievable,
Why do I value it so much?
Why do I find it "touchingly flawed" and not "crappy"?
Why did I take the trouble of putting it up on the internet, where people sneer at everything?

Myself:
I have a feeling you're unconsciously attaching some sappy,cheesy, mushy value to all this. Some crap like "nostalgia" or "Puraani Yaadein". Seriously, you're turning mushier by the day. Carry on like this and you'll become another Ranbir Kapoor
Me :
*gulp*
Myself:
Damn right you are, Mr. fast-becoming-metrosexual.

Me: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo

Silence is Golden

2009-09-20T13:13:00.003+05:30

My kaam-waali bai (housemaid) has undertaken a nine-day maunvrat(vow of silence) for Navratri. She refuses to speak out loud, communicating with everyone using hand-signals, some pointing and grunting, and the written word. Remarkable, isn't it? If I had to remain silent for nine days, I'd go mad!

Stop The Replay

2009-09-19T13:28:00.003+05:30

It's been over a month since I last posted. I've been a bit preoccupied with college stuff and there wasn't anything worth writing about anyway...

I now have some time on my hands though, and for starters, I've changed the title and the layout of the blog. The old "Akshayn Replay" had started to seem too serious, and I'm certainly not one of those self-styled wise men who enlightens one and all with oh-so-insightful opinions. I'm just another bored teenager without much of a social life, who likes to write. And I don't want to fall prey to hubris, which most of the blogosphere seems to suffer from.

So I've hit the stop button on the idiotic replays, and have chosen a title apt for what I'm doing here, what almost everyone with a computer does. Also added some new gadgets, the funny thoughts thing is fab! Thinking of uploading a pic.

And no more writing on national/political issues. The kind of replies I get to my views on the nation make me realize that the internet is full of "realists" whose contribution to the nation is to "introspect". Introspection may be the first step towards solving the problems, but it's also the easiest. And the battle isn't won with the first step alone. Everyone on the damn internet introspects, and jumps up and down about having taken the first step. And they do only that, claiming they're making progresss when actually they're just jumping at the first step.

When someone points that out, they get all offended and start shouting. Because identification of the problem is the key to solving them, right? Well everyone has the key. It's finding the correct lock that is the most difficult part, which most of the realists simply can't(or don't want to) undertake. Anyone who thinks so is fried for having insulted their immense contributions. And I'm badly burnt and dissapointed. So, no more saying anything about current issues in India anymore, not on the internet atleast.

I'm in two minds. What am I doing, I ask myself. Am I murdering my "blogging career" (LOL) with my title? Will people take me seriously? Won't they flay me for taking such a different view of the nation? To which my other mind replies ,net par sab chugiri hi karte hain, just that no one wants to admit it. People take themselves too seriously. (He(It?) is the one that LOLed at my blogging career)

All kinds of conflicting feelings envelope me at the moment. Am I going to regret writing this?

Happy I-Day!

2009-08-15T11:20:00.005+05:30

It's the 15th of August! India turns 62 today. This is my I-Day special (which will probably be read by 1 person a week if I'm lucky,but what the heck.) Well in 62 years, we've come a long way. From a poor, battered collection of fragments of kingdoms and fiefs, to the largest democracy in the world, we have evolved at a rapid pace in the past decades. One heartening thing I've noticed in the past few years is a growing sense of pride in being Indian. upto 2007, I'd never seen people exchanging I-Day greetings. Independence Day was just another holiday. Now I actually see people bursting crackers on Indpendence Day, and shopping malls giving Independence Day special offers. People are finally shaking off the inferiority complex which the British imparted us, and now I observe they no longer feel ashamed to call themselves Indian.

Ofcourse, there will be a lot of SLIME in cyberspace. Anti-Indian NRI bloggers who bitch about India without knowing what they're talking about will use I-Day as an opportunity to drill their pathetic points, about how India is communal,casteist, poor and a "lose". They claim to be "patriotic", and that "they want to open the eyes of the people". They will accuse people like us, those with hope, about "stalling India's progress" by not "acknowledging" her problems. But the reality is that they're just low IQ imbeciles with too much time on their hands whose weekly source of entertainment is indulging in "relevant'' discussions about "Why India sucks'', all this in a booze induced stupor. When one argues with them, about what they're trying to do to make India "suck less", they just turn the other way. Dumbfucks.

I have taking such people seriously. And I suggest those, who are truly aware of the nation's difficulties, do the same. These persons are plain losers.

But celebrations are somewhat subdued. What with Dukkar Flu and the drought, many persons are in a sick situation. The spectre of drought brings with it a host of problems, all very grave. I just hope, that the political class, for once actually stops using it as a poll issue and does something about it.

As for myself, I have a cold, cough, slight fever, stomach ache, headache and don't feel like eating. Is it H1N1? Or is it my body telling me to stop screwing around online? I'll find the answer to that myself..... but I couldn't go for the flag-hoisting x-( And I got yet another C in Engineering Graphics. I'm sleep deprived, and disoriented, after a week of slogging in college for 10 hours straight, and enduring the commute in the cattle-trains. And I'm having a tough time making sense of Modern Physics. I don't see the point in teaching tripe like Quantum Mechanics and LASER physics in a chemical engineering course. Or am I plain dumb and it is actually relevant? Or should I just stop making such idiotic & sanctimonious comments and do what I'm told? Haha, by now you've realized I don't have anything else to write about. So I'll stop here and spare you any more torture.

Jai Hind.

PS: Do check these out: 1)http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=others&do=/blogs/post/Indian-Reality.aspx

2)http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/44/200908152009081502312240640ab3a9f/Sixtytwo-candles.html

Now somebody give me a list of 62 challenges, and you have another blog post by "me" :P

What NOT to do while preparing for IIT-JEE

2009-08-04T18:47:00.008+05:30

Aug 4, 2009 6:21 AM: Wake up after some fierce rousing by my mother. Then trudge to the bathroom like a zombie, half-asleep, listless. Apply Pepsodent to my frayed, bristle-bald toothbrush, and begin the up-down monotone.(FYI, Swast daaton ke liye brush hamesha upar-neeche karna chahiye, aage peeche nahin.) In the middle of my 34th cycle, a sudden realization jolts me wide awake. "Your JEE performance card was supposed to be released on saturday..."says a voice in my head. I feel excited, nervous. Why the f*ck I am bothered about an exam which had no bearing anymore is something even I can't answer....
Anyway, fast-forward to======>
Aug 4, 2009 3:21 PM: Am staring at my performance card on the screen.
My marks: Total 188/480
Pathetic, innit?
I was expecting this, but nonetheless, I was disappointed. Looking at my marks, I saw that the Chemistry section was what ruined me. The JEE paper-wallahs had sprung a very nasty surprise this year. Otherwise decent students like me who did selective study paid. Through their nose :P :(
So, I, Akshay _______(won't reveal last name), JEE 2009 AIR 6926, hereby give some general suggestions to those idiots immersed in ghoting (man, I love this word) MCQ books at the moment.
I may not be qualified to write an article on "How to crack IIT-JEE"(Sermons like that are best left to the sub-100 phodus), but like someone said, "In order to know the road ahead, ask those coming back."
So here is my list of 3 things you must avoid if you intend to see your scrawny face in the local rag........With a three-digit number below it B-)(No no, it's not a Wanted poster.)

1)Selective Study.
"Inorganic boring hai yaar, isse chhod do. Ratta marne mein kya maza hai. Physical or Organic kar loonga toh ho gaya kaam."
Yes, dude. Ho jaayega tera kaam tamam.
The main reason of my less-than-impressive performance was this. This year's paper was really different. I had ignored inorganic and hence couldn't handle the shock when I saw that 40% of the Chem section comprised inorganic chemistry. Inorganic is easy to learn, but tough to recall. So try to devise innovative methods for studying the subject such as flowcharts,mnemonics and colour-coded notes. Try to make your own notes, and try to give the subject more time(for people like me, who,well, simply don't remember things they don't like.) Constant revision is important. And fitting your inorganic study-hours in between studying subjects like math and physics helps freshen the mind so you can absorb better. Study inorganic while you have the time i.e. now. If you find it difficult to make time, attempt to cut down on the idiot-box and the computer. In other words, use part of your free-time.

2)Repetitiveness.
"Arre chhave, maine Summation of series ke 200 sum kiye."
Toh main kya karoon, bhai?
In physics and mathematics, practising a number of problems of the same kind would make sense when you're studying the basics, but doing 1000 problems on Binomial expansion is plain stupid when you're in your hardcore preparation mode. Avoid repeatedly doing the same type of questions. It only wastes time. If you come across a problem you've solved before, no need to solve it again. Be methodical and not mechanical. Once you've mastered the fundas, try to attempt different kinds of problems of varying difficulty. It gives you courage to face the unknown, and the twists and turns that are usually associated with the JEE. Just ensure that your basic concepts are clear and do a set number of problems.
This is another area in which yours truly erred....

3)Banking on a Specific Pattern.
Usually 2) gives rise to this. This is particularly dangerous because for me, 3) led to 1) and 1) was the main cause my JEE fiasco.
JEE is an ever- changing exam. The pattern undergoes changes everyear, as does the composition. In the past few years, Trigonometry and Inorganic Chemistry had hardly contributed to the JEE. So I ignored both, and went for the exam in the smug confidence that Trigonometry and Inorganic were not important and I could manage without having studied them.

Well I was wrong. I had committed 2) too many times, so I 3) and subsequently 1) had clouded my thinking. I was not mentally prepared for the change in the nature of questions and the pattern as such. And so I panicked when I saw Trigo and Inorganic questions in the paper, which also hampered my answering of the areas I was well-versed in. The truth is I was simply not confident to face a shift in the composition of the exam paper. And I made inexcusable errors even in the simplest of problems. The result is in front of you. Near 7k rank.

The paper was very easy. The questions were pretty basic and didn't need any problem-solving skills or extraordinary intelligence. Any average person with a knowledge of his highschool syllabus could have done exceptionally well. The reason people like me underperformed was because of misplaced priorities and a few undesirable practices, which cost us dear.

So, it is my suggestion, avoid 1) , 2) , 3) as much as possible.

I'm not bitter at not having performed well. I am neither frustrated nor angry. I merely gave some general suggestions which ( I feel) would assist an above-average student in boosting his/her performance.
I am not angry with myself, because I know that eventually JEE is ten times more of a crapshoot than Russian Roulette. Luck plays a huge part. Avoiding 1),2),3) will not help one clear JEE, but will give him/her the satisfaction that the reasons for his/her not having cleared JEE, if that should happen,were beyond his/her control :)
So even if you don't make it, it's no reason to feel dejected. After all, as some great ideologue said, "More education is needed on the fact that an IIT is just another crappy engineering college. Stop glorifying it so much f*ckwads."

Ugly Indian Student===>Beat Him Up?

2009-08-02T11:14:00.004+05:30

Amid some hysterical reporting by the Indian media, and the apparent lethargy of the Australian Police, the plight of the wronged Indian student is forgotten. The shameless capitalization of the incidents by our news channels to convert it into another TRP booster, and the disgusting manner in which the well-heeled "NRIs" in Australia have distanced themselves from the victims has not done the Australia-based Indian student any favours.

This morning I read an article in the TOI by Rakesh Ahuja, former Australian Deputy High Commissioner to India. He spoke of "Racist" Oz and the Ugly Indian student. He claimed that the disconnect between the Indian students in Australia and the natives was more because of the "appalling" behaviour of the Indian students in Australia, than the "Racism". But to be brutally frank, it was just waffle by another stuck up Indian-Australian with a pathological dislike for his native people. His opinion on the whole issue, if any, seemed to be lost in a flurry of sweeping generalizations about India and Indians. Hardly anything he said seemed relevant. To me atleast.
"Visible traits imported from home include a sullen unsmiling visage; disdain towards serving staff, lewdly ogling women;playing raucous Indian music on public transport;cooking pungent food without regard for neighbour's sensitivities;littering;spitting-and let us not even mention the unhygienic practices in (male) toilets."
This is nonsense. There are more than 94,000 Indians studying in Australia(according to Ahuja himself) Does that mean every one of them behaves as above? The true Indian is kind-hearted, tolerant and sensitive. It is highly irresponsible and immature to make stupid statements like these based on the perceived uncouthness of a section of 94,000 people.
And first and foremost, what has all this got to do with the attacks on Indians. Does Ahuja dare to give a justification for these attacks? Is "bad" behaviour an excuse for violence? Ahuja certainly seems to think so. Then what of the Westerners who visit India? What about those who dress skimpily, smoke pot in restaurants, indulge in noisy banging in hotels, enter our temples wearing footwear. Isn't that offensive to our culture?Aren't they being insensitive to our culture? A strong "Yes", in my opinion.
But does that mean we beat them up, abuse them on the road for the heck of it? Mug them violently? Certainly not. Ahuja probably has a stock incoherent diatribe ready incase an Australian woman as much as touched in a crowded Indian locality. He would, in his narrow outlook, write about "Lewd Ogling" and the "uncivilized" Indian society. I can visualize him doing the hysterical shouting just as the Indian media is about "Racist Australia".
Foreign women, no doubt, have had bad experiences in India. And I'm ashamed of the people responsible. I have no excuse, no justification. And I'm thankful for that.
I would never be able to live with myself if I justified the rape of a white woman in India by blaming her for "dressing inappropriately".

There's more . None of which has any bearing on the real issue as far as I can see.
People coming from tier-II cities like Bhopal, Ludhiana,Jalandhar,etc. have barely passable english and a "provincial mindset" and "cultural baggage" to Australia, he writes. According to him, they have no understanding of Australian culture, and despise Aborigines(blacks).
The statement in italics is probably the joke of the century. It in statements like these that the writer's prejudice is exposed. Australia is a multi-cultural society, that is why the Whites have treated Aborigines like dirt for centuries. It is only Indians who dislike Aborigines, that is why White Australians massacred Aborigines. (I'm not a history expert, I'm just trying to highlight why I disliked this statement. The author trying to make it look as if it is only Indians who ill-treat Aborigines.And even if each of the 94,000 people hates Aborigines, what has that got to do with all the violence?)

There is more about "How Indians need to refine their behaviour". He also claims another reason for the discord among Indians and Australians is that Indians are subverting an educational opportunity in the quest permanent residency. They have no commitment to Australia, yet they expect to be protected.

Okay, they don't speak good English. They may have a provincial mindset and cultural baggage.
They may not smile, they may ogle, they may play loud music. Yes, all they may want is permanent residency.
So what? Beat them up? Corner them in a shady locality and stab them?
Nothing better than some good ol' Curry Bashing, eh?
You see an Ugly Indian Student spitting on the road, so you beat him up?
Is that how Australian society is? Is violence a remedy for everything? Is brutality always excusable and justifiable?

I don't entirely disagree with what Ahuja has written. Granted, some Indians live like animals, have no regard for Australian sensitivites, spit on the roads, litter, and are unhygienic. But it is downright barbaric to give all this as an excuse for harming them physically.

The situation is quite simple. There were certain untoward incidents, some very brutal, in which Indian students were victims. Many of them probably had a racist overtone, many could have been merely opportunistic. The Indian media, in typical fashion, turned it into a "Australia is Racist" slugfest.(which only makes us look stupid, because Indian society too has its share of racist elements, just like anywhere in the world.) This probably spurred on some Indians in Australia, who then started their own shrill "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "India is Great" agitations, possibly incurring the resentment of the average Australian on the street, and understandably so. I don't see any disconnect or discord.

The solution, too is simple. Due diligence on the part of the Police. And that Indians should learn how to defend themselves. (The Chinese are more probably a lot more insular than we are, but one rarely hears about Chinese people getting physically assaulted. That's because they know how to hit back.) Of course, as Ahuja said, maybe Indians do need to refine their behaviour, behave properly. But I don't see how it is going to prevent them from getting stabbed. Violent muggings will always continue to happen so long as they're unpunished. "Refining" the behaviour of Indians is not going to change the fact that there are some racist elements in Australia. The racist people will be deterred only when the local Police takes concerted action to bring the perpetrators to book. And I'm sure they are, because it is a multi-million dollar education industry at stake. On the part of the Indians, maybe they do need to open up a little,mingle with the local people, respect their customs and culture. But people like Rakesh Ahuja, seem only to be trying to give excuses blaming the Indians for "bad behaviour". A crime is a crime. You can't just excuse a criminal just because his victim was "ugly" and "smelled of curry." I've read many Indian-Australians writing in the same vein.
This is in stark contrast so some opinions by native Australians, which I thought were balanced and objective.While asserting that Australia is a tolerant multi-cultural society, atleast they acknowledged that there were some racist attacks and that there is a fair amount of Police apathy(lack of Police funding is a problem, I heard,especially in Melbourne) . Atleast they apologized for the attacks and condemned those involved. Atleast they didn't blame the victims for the attacks.Atleast they didn't give ridiculous reasons like "bad behaviour'' and "Indians cook pungent food''.

I didn't quite get what Rakesh Ahuja wanted to say. But I didn't see any relation to his statements with the attacks on Indian students in Australia. He may be right, but I can't fathom how it is related to the actual issue.

PS: My first post :D
Apologies to anyone offended/unhappy/angry. If you didn't like what I wrote, why are you still here :P ?